Evening Brief: Trudeau’s troubles on hold as Beyak’s bloom

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Good evening to you.

The Lead:

Trudeau no longer has to worry about his House ethics committee RSVP, as he’s officially been uninvited to the party.

A Conservative motion asking that the House ethics committee invite Trudeau before the committee to speak about the ethics commissioner’s Trudeau Report — which found Trudeau broke Canada’s ethics laws — was defeated 6-3. Our Beatrice Britneff has the story.

In Canada:

Senator Lynn Beyak may already have been booted from the Conservative caucus, but she’s not getting any breathing room to lick her wounds. Members of the Independent Senator’s Group want a Senate committee to look into whether Sen. Beyak violated ethics rules when she posted letters supporting her controversial notions about residential schools to her website. Janice Dickson has more on that.

Passionate political supporters might work long hours on behalf of the party they want to see succeed. Questions have been raised, however, over when that “volunteer” is not longer a volunteer — and has to follow the same rules that govern financial donations. Elections Canada cleared things up in an interpretation bulletin today. Kady O’Malley tells us what that bulletin has to say.

Would you know how to save the life of someone overdosing on opioids? If your answer is no, you’re in the majority. New figures from StatsCan indicate only 7 per cent of Canadians know how to obtain naloxone and use it to prevent a fatal overdose. Kyle Duggan has the story.

The Conservative opposition is repeating its demand that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau close a loophole in the Safe Third Country Agreement after U.S. President Donald Trump ordered 200,000 Salvadorans to leave the country by September. Janice Dickson has more.

The PMO seems to have a vetting problem. Documents unearthed in an Access to Information request indicate that, of the four agencies tapped to perform a background check on Trudeau’s GG pick, at least two agencies were never actually contacted to do it. Kelsey Johnson has the details.

Trudeau kicks off new series of town halls in Halifax (CP)
Dental and medical benefits for some bureaucrats tangled up in Phoenix web (CP)
Four staffers at Edmonton Institution fired by Correctional Service of Canada (CP)
Feds expand automatic sign up for old-age benefits to include income supplement (CP)

Internationally:

In an effort to reduce border tension, North and South Korea have agreed to hold high-level military talks. The revelation came after the two states held their first high-level meeting in two years. BBC has the story.

Ex-Sheriff Joe Arpaio has entered the Arizona Senate race. Trump controversially pardoned Arpaio after he was convicted of criminal contempt for refusing a court order asking him to stop racially profiling Latinos. CNN tells us more.

As the possibility of Oprah 2020 gathers steam down south, Donald Trump weighed in on the possibility of facing off with the media mogul. Trump said he could beat Oprah in a presidential race should she actually choose to run, which he doesn’t think is likely.

While most of the world’s attention has been focused on one book, another notable author is set to make her fiction debut on May 1. Former Supreme Court chief justice Beverley McLachlin quietly scribbled a novel during her downtime on the bench. The least surprising thing about this news is the genre: it’s a legal thriller.

The Kicker:

Cameras can sometimes attract unwanted attention. A BBC reporter learned that lesson the hard way today as some unlikely culprits found themselves irresistibly drawn to the lens — and the man standing in front of it.